by stillin 12 Replies latest watchtower bible
It always made me think when I Corinthians 11 was read at the Memorial, when Jesus said "as often as you keep doing this..." I would think"hmmm, once a year isn't really very often, the other churches are a lot more often than us."
great to see that they fixed that to "keep doing this." Wouldn't want any doubts, now, would we?
It just occurred to me that this the sort of nit piking, tweaking that attorneys do. Also, I've written a few policy and procedure manuals for HR and we tend to go through the language in the same way.
Adiva
In the Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament the word translated as "As often as" is οσακις (ho-sak-is). It is coupled with εαν (e-ahn) which means "if ever." ("as often as if ever you do this...") So the implication I think that Paul is making is that Christians should never stop doing the Eucharist and not making any sort of statement as to how often it should be done whether weekly, daily or yearly.
CyrusThePersian
It's interesting that the Greek word 'an' which is translated as "as often as" has no equivalent in English!
http://www.blbclassic.org/Bible.cfm?b=1Cr&c=11&v=1&t=KJV#conc/26
So I would imagine there would be a consensus amongst Greek scholars regarding the difficulty in trying to translate the word reasonably accurately.
Then again, the apostle Paul's words at 1 Cor. 5:7, "For indeed Christ our Passover has been sacrificed", could indicate that Paul now viewed Christ's sacrifice as a cause for superseding the original Passover, which was celebrated annually.
It is more interesting that all the gospels etc are quite a lot of bullshit. Who would know better about the memorial (if itever occured)... Paul or the disciples? It is PAUL who talks most about it, 1 of the most important ones (john) does not even mention, 2 are almost the same (mark/matthew) Etc. iow: eyewitnesses are scarse to say the least!
Reasoning book:
How often is the Memorial to be commemorated, and when?
Jesus did not specifically state how often it was to be done. He simply said: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19) Paul said: “For as often as you eat this loaf and drink this cup, you keep proclaiming the death of the Lord, until he arrives.” (1 Cor. 11:26) “As often” need not mean many times a year; it can mean annually over a period of many years. If you commemorate an important event, such as a wedding anniversary, or if a nation commemorates an important event in its history, how often is it done? Once a year on the anniversary date. This would also be consistent with the fact that the Lord’s Evening Meal was instituted on the date of the Jewish Passover, a yearly celebration that no longer had to be kept by Jews who had become Christians.
This is so WT style. In the absence of a rule, make one!
I was also informed on another thread that the expression " mentally diseaesed " was removed from the New Bible translation. WT Society scared of negative repercussions much ? LOL
I would guess that this would be more of a "sticking point" with ones who converted to JWism more so than ones who were born in.
Well, I'm surprised that they didn't revise it to "keep doing this once a year".
Or, even better, "Keep doing this once a year, on Nisan 14, after the sun goes down".
Or maybe, "Keep doing this once a year, on Nisan 14, after the sun goes down, and advertize the event with a well-coordinated campaign, for 3 weeks before that day. Oh, and make sure you degrade the event to a salesman-quality talk advertizing the WTBTS".
It's not that they wouldn't have the nerve for it.
(Darn, I hope I don't give them ideas.)
